


the world is your oyster

by ohthelinsanity



Category: Free!
Genre: I had to okay? it was inevitable, Multi, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-19
Packaged: 2018-03-29 02:29:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3878758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohthelinsanity/pseuds/ohthelinsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We were supposed to end up on a nude beach.”</p><p>Haru tries to ignore Rin for the umpteenth time as he attempts to pick the rest of the seaweed out of his hair. “I know,” he says flatly, reaching over to pick off a small starfish that has probably been hitchhiking on Rin’s shoulder ever since they migrated from the warmer pacific islands. “Someone read the stars incorrectly,” Haru jokes in his ever-present deadpan humor, picking off another little starfish on his own hip.</p><p>(in which Haru and Rin's human transformation accidentally lands them on the wrong beach in Japan, leaving one Makoto Tachibana and his squad of friends to teach them everything they need to know. </p><p>Well. After they get some clothes)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. pearls

**Author's Note:**

> MERMAID AU!!!! This will be entirely funny and in no way sad, I promise. 
> 
> I had to do it I HAD TO. Let me have this.

“We were supposed to end up on a _nude_ beach.”

Haru tries to ignore Rin for the _umpteenth time_ as he attempts to pick the rest of the seaweed out of his hair. Every once in a while his eyes scan the beach but it’s pretty much empty save for the three dots around the cove and down the beach that Haru assumes are children kicking around an inflatable beach ball.

“I know,” he says flatly, reaching over to pick off a small starfish that has probably been hitchhiking on Rin’s shoulder ever since they migrated from the warmer pacific islands. He puts it down in one of the tidal pools that are hidden between some larger rocks that are currently shielding them from any humans. “Someone read the stars incorrectly,” Haru jokes in his ever-present deadpan humor, picking off another little starfish on his own hip.

“I did _not_ ,” Rin defends, but even he doesn’t sound so convinced. “We’ve done this migration like, a million times.”

Haru shrugs, too captivated with his new pair of legs to really be off put about the matter. “The changing process probably messed up your sense of direction. We’re too far north.”

Rin huffs and crosses his ankles, almost falling off the rock he’s perched on. “Okay, _fine_ but what do we do about it? The humans here don’t walk around naked. We need clothes.”

“We wait until it’s dark. Humans don’t go to the beach at night.”

“That still doesn’t solve the lack of clothes problem!”

At this point, some of Rin’s teeth are bore in a sharp growl, and Haru realizes they have bigger problems than nudity. “I thought these would get fixed,” he muses aloud, reaching forward to poke at them; Rin bites at his fingers.

“What’s wrong with my teeth?” Rin barks, but he’s pressing his fingers tentatively to his mouth anyhow. “They don’t look that different from regular human ones, do they?”

The problem is they _do._ Generally speaking, merfolk have teeth that resemble humans to a tee, but there are still some with the sharper ones just like sharks; merfolk like Rin. But it appears that even after his human transformation, Rin was stuck with them, and a lot of them.  “They look pretty scary.” The humans wouldn’t like this. They were afraid of sharks.

“No,” Rin argues with a scoff. “Surely not. They probably look like…oh who are the humans with the bad teeth? The British folks off the Atlantic, yeah?”

Haru isn’t convinced. “We’ll tell them you messed them up in a boating accident.”

“A _boating_ accident?”

He’s seen humans around boats: they often are clumsy and fall off. “I’m sure they’ll believe it.”

“How does a boat mess up my teeth?”

Haru shrugs. He can’t think of a specific example. “If you don’t like that, just tell them you like to saw them down with a piece of coral once a week.”

Rin’s cheeks go as red as his hair. “Stop _telling_ that story! You’ve got all the dolphins laughing at me.”

“That’s an exaggeration.” If only slightly. Haru _has_ told a lot of dolphins, and as everyone knows, dolphins sure like to gossip.

“Haru!”

His shout carries down the beach and one of the dots, the tallest of the three humans, turns his head and looks down the shore, forcing Rin and Haru to duck their heads down below the rocks and pray no one comes to check up on them.

“Okay, but seriously,” Rin’s voice has dropped to something less shrill. “How are we going to solve the clothes situation?”

That really is a good question. They aren’t going to pull off any kind of assimilation without covering themselves properly. He thinks of the humans down the beach with their umbrellas and towels and bags full of Many Things. “We could ask those people down the beach.”

Rin’s eyes go wide. “What?” he growls. “No!”

“Why not.”

“Because!”

“Because why.”

Rin puffs out his cheeks. “There’s no way we can explain ourselves. Telling them we thought this was a nude beach isn’t going to cut it.”

That’s true. Slowly, lifts his heads above the rocks and looks down the shore to find that the tall human has gone back to playing with the smaller two in the sand. “You know, they look pretty young,” Haru muses. “If they’re children, we could just tell them the truth.”

“What!?” Rin screams, and this time _all three_ humans stop what they’re doing and try to look beyond the rocky part of the shore and into the cove.

“Shut up,” Haru grunts. Back when they had tails, Haru would just give Rin’s a sharp tug whenever he was being annoying but left without it, Haru is forced to find an alternative and settles with a sharp slap to Rin’s bottom, one hard enough to leave a bit of a red mark. It almost has him tumbling into the water.

“Don’t do that,” Rin hisses, rubbing his bare bottom with one of his hands. “Why do you think we can tell children the truth?”

Haru gives a noncommittal grunt. “Human children are known for their imaginations. They will believe us. And, if they tell an adult human, those adults will just think the children are making it up. That’s how humans work.”

“I don’t know,” Rin clicks his tongue. “That doesn’t sound like much of a plan. It’ll just make us look crazy and we’ll stick out even more.”

Rin is being difficult. “Fine,” Haru sighs. “Just tell them we lost our bikini bottoms in the waves.”

“Swim trunks,” Rin corrects blandly. “Women wear the bikini bottoms.”

“No,” Haru argues. “Men wear them too.”

“You’re thinking of speedos.”

“…are speedos and bikini bottoms different?”

“You guys are hopeless.”

Both Haru and Rin turn their heads to see the splash of a dark red tail before a head of equally dark red hair pops out of the water. The mermaid braces her arms on the rocks and heaves herself up best she can, leaving her tail to dip in the water. “Speedos and bikinis? They’re different. You’ll need to know that among a hundred _million_ other things if you’re going to live on land,” she sighs, ringing her hair out before taking a piece of kelp and knotting it in a bun on top of her head.

Rin groans, and picks up one of the larger starfish that Haru had peeled off his back earlier. “Gou, why aren’t you wearing your starfish?”

Gou waves his offer off with a roll of her eyes before she lets her hair down and covers her breasts with it. “You’re so annoying, brother. Besides, why does it matter? It’s just you and Haru.”

“She’s right,” Haru shrugs. “I don’t mind.”

“Of course you don’t mind,” Rin grumbles, but he tosses the starfish back in the tide pool anyhow. “So, how does the beach look?”

Gou wiggles a bit, tail fluttering and splashing back down in the water. “It’s pretty empty today. The winds are kind of gnarly and humans don’t like all the sand blowing in their faces or whatnot. All that’s down around the cove are three humans. All pretty much children.”

“Pretty much children?” Rin squints at her. “What does _pretty much_ children mean?”

Gou tosses an arm up in exasperation. “I don’t know. Two of them are real young and the other one looks to be about your age. So, depends on whether or not you consider yourself a child. Which, by the way _you are.”_

Rin snarls before he sucks in a breath and blows right at her; one of his teeth flies out and hits Gou square on the forehead.

“That’s the second one since we started drying out,” Haru muses aloud. He goes to inspect Rin’s mouth, but his fingers almost get bitten off. “How many more are you going to lose?”

“Quite a few, I’m guessing,” Gou answers. “He’s got way more teeth than humans do, so his body has to adjust.” She picks up the loose tooth and frowns. “Shame drying out didn’t make your teeth more human.”

“We were going to tell them they’re all jagged from a boating accident,” Haru says smugly, partly because he knows it pisses Rin off and partly because he actually thinks it’s a rather good excuse.

“We were _not.”_

Gou hops off the rocks, submerging her tail completely. “Well whatever you do, clothes have to come first.” She stares at their legs and what’s in between and giggles. “You guys look silly.”

Rin gets all red in the face, an argument on the tip of his tongue about his appearance while Haru is far too distracted by the rainbow colored inflatable ball that the wind carries into the cove and plops into one of the tide pools.

Haru, Gou and Rin all stop what they’re doing and freeze.

Instinctively, they each wrinkle their nose at the sight. They all hate plastic. It ends up in the ocean all the time, whether it is the stupid beach balls or the human’s crinkly chip wrappers. Haru can’t tell how many times he’s pulled a plastic ring off a dolphin’s nose or a baby turtle’s shell. It’s almost as annoying as those oil spills.

Rin hisses out a “Hide!” and Gou dips down back into the water, deep enough that she can’t be seen, but Haru can still hear her nearby.

Seconds later two children, a boy and a girl, come speeding around the cove, tripping on the sand and laughing as they try to push one another into the shallow waters. Rin and Haru hop off the rocks and submerge their bodies in the waters, trying to keep hidden. With one arm, Haru tosses the beach ball back a little closer in hopes that the children will collect it and go away.

It doesn’t exactly work like that.

“Hey, look! I told Makoto we weren’t the only ones at the beach today!”

Haru dares to peek around the rocks and sees that the young girl is staring right at them, bright eyes matching her wide smiles. “Hello!”

Against what are most likely Rin’s wishes, Haru opens his mouth and responds. “Hola, ¿cómo estás hoy?”

Rin takes one arm off the rocks and uses it to smack Haru upside the head. A fair punishment considering Haru panicked and _spoke the wrong human language._

The children however simply tilt their heads in confusion, in what is surprising synchronization that Haru has only ever seen in schools of fish. “Huh?” they say together.

He starts again. “I apologize,” he says slowly, because he hasn’t spoken Japanese in years. This is why he much prefers their original plan of doing this whole business in Australia or South America. “It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?”

The kids nod, the boy crouching close to the waters to grab the inflatable ball. “Yup! Our brother took us to the beach like he promised, even though it’s really windy and he was worried the waves would be too high.”

Haru has to fight to roll his eyes. Humans and their fear of the ocean. Though he supposes he can’t blame them, since they aren’t well equipped to swim. He is starting to learn that as he swims around the cove.

“¡Cállate ya!” Rin complains, loudly, switching his human language. Haru must have gotten it in his head. “Esto es peligroso.”

 Haru tears his eyes away from the children and splashes Rin’s face with a little water. “Nada malo va a pasar.”

“¡No puedes prometer eso!”

“Relajas, _por favor_.” Haru looks back at the children and says, “Sorry, he doesn’t like meeting new people. Forgive him.” That earns him another kick to his legs.

The kids don’t look too off put, but rather their eyes are shining with curiosity. “Wow!” they squeal, “That was so cool!” The children give them one last wave, looking like they’re about to run off again, when Haru says one more thing: “Actually, do you think you guys can help us with something?”

Haru hears Gou curse at him from somewhere under the water. The children blink at him and Rin. “Like what?”

There are two ways to approach this: Lie, and go with the swim bikini bottom trunk... whatever story and hope they believe that their clothes go lost in the waves so easily and ask that they help them replace them. The second one, the better one in Haru’s opinion, is to simply tell them the truth. They’re children. _Human children_. They have no power in their world, and Haru is certain they can’t do any harm. His eyes slide over to Rin, who is shaking his head _no_ over and over again, but he pays him no mind.

“We need clothes,” Haru explains, and Rin makes some sort of strangled noise in anticipation of Part Two. “Do you think you can find us some?”

The silence that fills the cove is awkward. “Why do you need clothes?” the boy finally asks and here comes The Big Reveal. “Don’t you have any?”

“Well,” Haru begins, and he _hears_ Rin praying a million miles an hour under his breath. “We just got our legs. We never needed them before when we had tails.”

“I hate you,” Rin growls, and lets his forehead fall on the rock.

But it seems Haru’s big reveal isn’t clear enough. The children still look puzzled. “What do you mean?” the boy asks, but then the girl simply smacks him on the arm, rolling her eyes.

“He _means_ they’re mermaids,” she explains. Wow, that was quick. “….right?”

“Mermen,” Rin corrects out of habit, but groans when he realizes he’s now a part of this.

The boy, however, rolls his eyes. “Ran, mermaids aren’t _real.”_

The girl, Ran, stomps her foot on the sand. “They are too, Ren!”

“She’s right,” Haru pipes in calmly. “We’re real.”

Ren still doesn’t look convinced. “I don’t believe you.”

Honestly, Haru doesn’t have time for this. He puckers his lips and starts to let out a high pitch whistle that will have every dolphin in a 3 mile radius cringing when Rin slaps a hand over his mouth. “No!” he hisses. “You keep Gou out of this.”

It’s a difficult task but eventually Haru manages to say what he needs to say, and just hopes that Gou will hear him. A few seconds later, her head and only her head, peeks out from the surface of the water. “Haru…” she says slowly, eyes darting back and forth between him and the children. “I don’t know….”

“They’re _children,”_ he emphasizes. “It’s fine.” He looks up at Ren and Ran and asks, “You two can keep a secret, right?”

They nod together with that creepy synchronization. “Yes, we can!”

“Because you know what happens to mermaids who get caught by humans? Your science adults try to hurt them. You don’t want them to hurt Gou,” and his eyes flick over to where she’s bobbing her head up and down. “Right?”

“No!” They shake their heads. “We won’t tell, we promise!”

Haru and Gou have a stare down before she finally caves. “Oh, _fine,”_ she sighs, swimming over to prop herself up on the rock she was on earlier. As soon as her tail is out of the water, the kids’ eyes go wide and their mouths go slack.

“Wow,” Ran breathes, crouching down to get as close to Gou’s tail as she can without touching it. Her hand hovers above her scales. “You’re so pretty, ma’am!”

Gou’s face softens at the compliment and she gives them a tiny smile. “Thank you.”

“See?” Ran barks back at Ren as she tugs him closer to get a better look. “I told you they were real.”

Ren doesn’t say anything, he simply stares at how her red scales shine in the afternoon sunlight. “She looks like Makoto said mermaids would look like!”

Ran jumps up and down, almost falling into the water, but Gou catches her and helps her stand upright again. “You’re right, you’re right!” She lets out another squeal as she sits down on one of the rocks beside Gou. “Makoto almost drowned in the ocean a while ago,” she says this with such _enthusiasm_ it has Haru a tad confused. “He doesn’t remember how he got to shore, but he tells us that a mermaid saved him.” She shoots Ren a smug look. _“I_ always believed him, but Ren and our parents didn’t.”

“That’s not true!” Ren yells. “You didn’t always believe him.”

“I did so!”

“You did _not!”_

“Did so!”

“Who’s Makoto?” Rin asks.

The kids drop their argument immediately and swivel their heads to look at Haru and Rin. “Our brother,” they say at the same time. Rin pulls a face and Haru knows he’s creeped out by the synchronization as well. “He’s the one that took us to the beach today.”

Haru nods in understanding. “And he almost drowned?”

This time the kids look rightfully sad. “Yeah,” Ren admits. “He’s always been scared of the ocean, but he still swims in it. Only this time there was a storm and….”

“Anyway,” Ran finishes, “Makoto says that he saw a mermaid and then he woke up on the beach.” She shrugs. “He thinks he saved him.”

“Him?” Rin echoes.

“Yeah, he said it was a boy mermaid.”

“Merman.”

Ran ignores Rin and looks back at Gou’s tail. “He said he was real pretty and had scales like this, only they were silver.” She looks back at Rin and Haru. “Hey! Maybe you know him?”

Haru doesn’t bother to look because it’s not necessary; he can feel Rin’s eyes boring into the side of his head. But he plays it cool. “Silver is common,” Haru says, “A lot of mermen fit that description.”

Rin is pretty stupid at times, but he often knows when to keep his mouth shut. Instead of arguing, Rin sucks in another breath and spits out another tooth in Haru's face. It bounces off one of the rocks and lands near Ren’s feet.

“Whoa! Your teeth are so pointy! Like a shark!” He admonishes, picking up the tooth and inspecting it. He grimaces. “EW! And this one’s all black!”

Rin’s eyes go wide, and then he’s poking around his mouth. “Wait, really? Aw, man!” he whines. “Dude, I’ve had that pearl forever, that was one of my first ones!”

“Brother!” Gou whines. “You’ve had a black pearl all this time? You’re supposed to _yank_ them when they start to turn _grey!”_

Rin waves her off, still poking at his teeth. “Oh, it’s all cosmetics with merfolk. They work just as well as the white ones, okay?”

Haru clicks his tongue. “I don’t think that’s true. I’m pretty sure they’re softer and break more easily.”

“No, they’re stronger.”

“If they were stronger, they wouldn’t recommend you pull them.”

“They recommend you pull them because merfolk think they’re ugly! It doesn’t matter if it’s brown, yellow, green, they’re all the same. You know, Kisumi’s got a whole rainbow of them, probably at least _four_ black pearls, so don’t get your tails in a net you little--”

“… _Pearls!?”_

Gou, Rin and Haru all look over to where Ren is holding Rin’s tooth with a newfound fascination. “Uh, yeah?” Rin drawls. “What of it?”

They still look shocked. “All of your teeth are pearls?”

“Mmmhm,” Gou hums, and gives them a toothy smile. “See? Mine are all healthy though—pink and white, just like they should be! Not a black pearl in sight.”

“Wow,” the kids sigh, getting as close as they can to her mouth. “That’s so _cool!_ I bet Makoto didn’t know you guys had pearls for teeth.”

“The brother, right?” Gou asks as she holds her palm out for the tooth. Ren drops it in her fingers, staring at the scales on her palm as Gou puts it in a little bag she had tied around her hip which she wove out of seaweed; she hands it to Haru.

“Yup!” Ran says. “Hey, maybe you can meet him!”

Gou looks a little panicked as she slides back into the water. “No,” Rin says slowly, tone matching that panic. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“Why not?”

Gou starts to circle the cove, and Haru knows she’s itching to leave. “Maybe later,” Haru intervenes. “Right now, we need to focus on getting clothes. So, do you think you two can help us?”

“Oh!” Ren’s eyes snap wide. “Right!” Then the confusion is back. “Wait a minute, why did you guys decide to be humans anyway?”

“Yeah,” Ran mourns, “Being a mermaid sounds way more fun. You guys get to swim all the time!”

That’s true. There’s nothing Haru loves more than swimming. When he told Rin he wanted to try a pair of legs with him, he was shocked just as much as everyone else. “It’s complicated,” he admits. “You see—”

Rin interrupts with a loud, rude sigh. “Are you going to help us or not?”

The kids share a look before they nod together. “Leave it to us!” they declare, and in less than five seconds they’re already running around the cove, their inflatable beach ball long forgotten.

“Welp,” Rin sighs, slapping the beach ball up the rocks. “You’ve really done it now.”

“If you mean I’ve gotten us clothes, then yes. I’ve really done it now.”

Gou, most likely tuning out their bickering, ties the little seaweed bag around Haru’s hip under the water. “Now,” she instructs, “Every time Rin loses a tooth, put it in the bag.”

Rin snorts. “Look, I’m a little too old for the Magical Tooth Ray, don’t you think?”

But his sister is staring at him like she can’t believe what an idiot he is, and it’s a feeling Haru can totally relate to. “Please tell me you aren’t serious. You _do_ know what humans think of pearls, don’t you?”

Oh, shit. Maybe Haru is an idiot too. “Uh….” Both boys trail off, and Gou is left to cry out in in anguish.

“They’re worth a _lot_ of money! It’ll buy you more clothes and food and shelter for a long time! Humans love them, they put them in clothes and jewelry. In fact, they make fake ones when they can’t afford the real ones. That’s how much they like them!”

“Ew,” Haru says wrinkling his nose. “Why do they want our teeth?”

“I don’t know,” Gou sighs. “Humans are weird. Why you two wanted to try it out is beyond me, but you have to get used to their customs all right?” She gives the bag one last good tug. “Remember to only speak one language at a time. Don’t try and sleep outside, even if it’s nice. Humans don’t do that. Oh, and don’t—”

“We got it, we got it,” Rin sighs. “Honestly, Gou. Have a little faith.”

“Faith!? You didn’t know what the value of a pearl was!”

“That’s like, one detail!”

“Gou,” Haru intervenes before the sibling squabble gets out of hand. “Don’t worry. We’ll be okay. I think these children can help us. Maybe even their Makoto.”

Her eyes soften a bit and she huffs, flipping her hair back behind her again. “Alright,” she murmurs. “I trust your judgment. But if you two ever need help—”

“We’ll call you,” Rin finishes, giving his sister a smile. “We promise.”

Seconds later, Ren and Ran return with human clothes. Haru recognizes each type—a pair of swim trunks and a long dress. See? He wasn’t so bad at this human stuff after all.

“The shorts are Mako’s extra ones, but the only other thing we had in the bag was a long beach dress out mom left in there from our last trip to the beach.” Ren and Ran hold up each article of clothing for them to see. “I know you might not want the dress, but—”

“I’ll take it,” Haru says quickly, swimming over to one of the rocks so Ran can toss it to him. The fabric is blue and covered with little sailboats and he thinks it is _way_ cooler than the boring green shorts Rin will have to wear.

The kids each turn around and talk to Gou, asking her questions and petting her tail, as Haru and Rin change. Rin only falls into the water once, and Haru only gets a little bit of the bottom of his dress wet, but overall changing isn’t that much of a hassle. “So,” Rin finally sighs when they’re finished and the kids turn around, “What do you think?”

Ren, Ran and even Gou giggle at the sight, and Haru figures it’s because Rin looks silly in his shorts. At least Haru is much more stylish. “I like this dress,” he tells the kids. The fluttering of the fabric shows off his legs nicely. “I want more. I’m going to wear this all the time.”

Gou heaves a heavy sigh. “Haru, you do know that it’s _women_ who mostly wear—” she stops short when Haru does a twirl and accidentally falls off the rocks and back into the water, taking Rin down with him.

The kids giggle and Gou shares a knowing smile with them.

“Forget it.”


	2. dresses

As the human children wait for their brother Makoto’s return, they are assaulted with some rather _ridiculous_ questions. But at this point, Haru finds that the two kids’ synchronization is less creepy and more endearing, and indulges them. After all, he’s never been so close to human children in years, and the experience is refreshing. They ask all sorts of questions, including:

“How old are you?” Ran asks, her eyes entirely on his hands as she inspects the leftover scales on his hands. 

"I’m two hundred and twenty.”

“ _Solar_ ,” Rin corrects when the kids’ eyes almost fall out of their head “Not _lunar_ , buddy.”

Ah, right. Merfolk use the moons and the tides for time, not the sun. “Oh. Then I’m about eighteen, I suppose.” He knows Rin’s older than him, but he doesn’t really know by how much—he’s never cared to know. “You’re my age, right?”

“I’m _three hundred moons,_ you idiot.”

“My bad, oh _ancient_ one,” Haru deadpans, and the children giggle.

 _“Ancient!?”_ Rin bristles, and Haru can almost can feel one of his annoying electric shocks prickling through his skin. “I’m not old until I’m at least eight hundred, so _zip it,_ you _barnacle brained_ —”

“Ran! Ren!”

They're cut short. “Makoto!” The kids shout, bounding off the rocks and back on to the shore to zip around the cove where they drag their brother to where Rin and Haru are currently resting on the rocks.

“Whoa, whoa, slow down!” Makoto laughs, holding his hands high above his head. “You don’t want me to drop your ice cream, do you?” he smiles down at them and hands them each a popsicle before they run back to the rocks. “Why are you two even over here—oh. Hello.”

From what Haru can see Makoto is tall and muscular, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He’s got these broad shoulders that are pinked and slightly freckled by the sun. His face is similar, the bridge of it peeling. There’s a slight change in skin color around his eyes—oval shaped—but they only serve to bring more attention to the bright green of his irises.

It’s a green he _swears_ he has seen before.

“Did you guys meet new friends?” he asks slowly, topping it off with a nervous chuckle. He walks slowly to the rocks, mindful of the tide pools.

“Mmmmhm!” Ran answers, breaking her popsicle in half and handing part of it to Haru, who mouths a thank you. Ren does the same with Rin; however, Haru makes the mistake of taking too big a bite of the popsicle—why are they so _cold?_ —and almost spits it right back out. He doesn’t though, compensating by scrunching his face in a way that’s got Rin in cackles.

“Shut up,” Haru grits through his teeth, slurping the melted mess in his mouth. “Go on take a bite, see how cold it is.”

Rin does, but his eyes roll in the back of his head in pure ecstasy. “Oh my god,” he says around the popsicle. “This is doing wonders to my mouth.”

“It can’t possibly be bothering you that much.”

“Let me punch you in the face, have all your teeth fall out, then you tell me if it _hurts_.”

Haru just shrugs and glances back up at Makoto, whose polite smile has been partially replaced with confusion. “Is that…are those my shorts?” he points to Rin. “And Ran, isn’t that _mom’s_ dress?”

Ran nods. “Yup,” and she pops the last syllable around her popsicle. “They needed clothes, so we gave them some.”

“Clothes,” Makoto blinks profusely, the confusion even more prominent. “For, uh, what?”

“They were naked,” Ren says, like it’s not outlandish.

Makoto’s mouth hangs open a bit.

“Because they just grew their legs,” Ran adds, eyes entirely on her popsicle.

“Uhm…”

“They’re _mermaids,”_ They say together.

The silence that stretches on is uncomfortable, and Makoto keeps his mouth open so long a school of fish would have swam in there had they been in the water.

“O _kay,”_ Makoto finally says, teetering with nervous laughter as he reaches for his sibling’s hands. “I think that…well, that’s….say goodbye now we’re going to leave.”

“No, no, no!” Ran instantly resists her brother’s grasp and rips her wrist from his hands. “I promise you, they’re mermaids!”

“Ran….” He looks back up and spares Haru a glance. He leans down and whispers to her, and while Haru doesn’t catch most of it, he does hear, “ _they’re just very confused humans.”_

“Nu-uh,” Ren shakes his head. “They’re not like guy on the train with the mismatched boots and the two pairs of broken headphones.”

Makoto instantly snaps his head up and his face flushes red, hands moving wildly back in forth in a gesture that’s so clumsy for Haru to decipher. “Not that you’re uhm, _crazy_ or anything, she doesn’t mean that I don’t—”

Haru pays no mind and nudges Rin’s arm. “What are headphones, again?”

“The earmuffs that play music.”

“Ah, right.” He turns back to Makoto. “We don’t have headphones.”

Makoto swallows thickly and paws at his cheek. “I-I see that. Listen, we really have to go….”

“No!” The children shout at the same time. “They’re mermaids! Tell them, Haru.”

“She’s right,” Haru says evenly, ignoring Rin’s little annoyed puff.  “Sort of. We used to be. Now we’re humans. Kinda. It's complicated.”

At this point, Makoto is as frozen as an iceberg, eyes darting in all sorts of directions between his siblings, him and Rin, and the beach where all their stuff is. Haru thinks if he looks anymore distressed he’ll sprout gills and a tail and start flopping around like a fish out of water.

“Gou!” Ren screeches, wiggling away from Makoto and running up to Rin. “Call Gou, she’ll prove it!”

Rin snorts, looking back at the water. “She’s probably halfway to China by now.”

“She’s literally 20 feet under the water, I can _hear_ her.”

“Haru.”

“What.”

“Shut the hell up.”

Makoto runs over and tries to grab at Ren’s arm again. “Come on Ren…”

Without warning, Haru puts two fingers to his mouth and lets out a sharp whistle—it’s something that humans can’t hear but it’s still a frequency the two of them can pick up. It has Rin wincing at the sound before Gou pops her head up no less than 10 seconds later, looking more _annoyed_ this time around.

“What now?” she sighs, swimming up to the rocks. Haru takes a look and sees Makoto’s got his mouth hanging open in shock, his grip on his sister’s arm loose. Gou’s tail slaps the water once before she heaves herself up on her rock again with a labored breath. “God, that’s not easy. I need to start lifting corals or something.” She notices the third human and shrinks back a little, but doesn’t go running for the waves. “Hello.”

Ran and Ren giggle as the stare up at their brother, still shocked. “You were right, brother,” Ran whispers. “Mermaids _are_ real.”

Finally, Makoto gives a smile— _a real smile—_ Haru thinks this smile is honest, _beautiful_ even. With tentative steps, Makoto makes his way over to Gou, hand outstretched in a limp gesture. “Hi. I’m Makoto.”

Gou smiles at him, looking completely at ease. She must feel it too—this human doesn’t seem harmful. He’s good. “I’m Gou.”

His eyes flick to her tail. “May I…?”

“Sure,” but just as Makoto’s about to touch her tail she jerks with dawning thought, snapping her fingers. “Ah, wait let me get these out of the way,” she mumbles, taking her long hair and tying it back up with a piece of seaweed. “Don’t want you to get stung,” she winks.

Makoto however, is instantly fascinated. “Stung?” he breathes, staring at her dreadlocks. “Are they…they’re kind of like jellyfish tentacles, huh?”

“That’s right,” Gou smiles. “They’re not very strong, but it still might hurt,” she shrugs.

Rin grins wide, displaying his row of sharp teeth—Makoto jumps at the sight. “She’s also got jellyfish brains, too. Meaning she doesn’t have any.”

Gou pulls one of her dreads out of its tie and leans over to whip Rin on the arm with it. He yelps, jumping back in outrage. “Gou! Honestly, that hurt.”

“Payback for all the times you electrocuted me with your stupid tail.”

“You’ve slapped me with those things way more than I’ve hit you with my tail, I can promise you that.”

“I disagree.”

Ren comes totting over to tug on Makoto’s arm. “Gou is Rin’s sister. See? They used to be mermaids, too.”

With a numb nod, Makoto more or less brushes off the sibling spat because his eyes are on a whole new prize. Haru watches as the human reaches forward and pets Gou’s scales with a delicacy he previously thought impossible for humans to have. The feeling of scales is fresh in his mind and Haru finds himself skimming the back of his leg with his big toe, just to feel—he likes the feeling of legs much better than the scales.

“They’re kinda cold,” Makoto giggles, hand going all the way down to the edges of her fin. “But soft too.” He looks up at her and his eyes crinkle with happiness. “You’re very beautiful.”

It’s quiet for a moment before Gou looks up at her brother and announces, “I like these humans. Stick with them, okay?” Haru and Rin nod while she reaches over and takes Makoto’s hands on hers. He looks shocked again, running his fingers over her knuckles—merfolk have slimier skin, it feels different. “Please take care of Rin and Haru. They’ve never done this before, and they’ll need all the help they can get.”

Makoto nods slightly, giving her hands a quick squeeze. When she squeezes back she leans in close, her tentacle hair almost giving him a sting on the side of his cheek. “They’re done changing for the most part, but sometimes they still have souvenirs. Haru, come here.”

He obeys, holding out his hands for Gou to inspect; “My brother, he’s got the teeth and those might not go away but for now, Haru’s got….” she puts his hand in Makoto’s, going as far as to take his long fingers and rubbing them over the palm of his hand. “See? She whispers, “He still has the scales.”

“Wow,” Makoto breathes. When Gou moves her hands Makoto is left with Haru’s upturned palm in his own. His fingers rake along his fingers and down his palm, pressing gently and smoothing back and forth. It’s a gentle touch but it still feels warm on his skin; a warmth that travels all the way up to his cheeks. “Silver…” he murmurs before he gently removes his hand from Haru’s and gives him a smile. "I.... I once saw..." He doesn't finish, instead takes to rubbing his hand.

They're eyes meet and Haru's heart flutters.

This is  _him._ It has to be.

“So, will you help them?”

 He looks back at his siblings and finds the two of them on their toes in anticipation, excitement about ready to burst through them. “Yeah,” he finally whispers, squeezing Haru's hands. “We’ll help them.”

 

* * *

 

Makoto is real quiet as the five of them walk back to the umbrella down the beach. Ren and Ran take turns trying to climb up Rin’s shoulders while Haru hangs back a few steps with Makoto. Every once in a while he’ll look down at Haru’s feet before looking away, as if he was caught doing something he shouldn’t. “What is it?” he finally asks.

“Nothing,” Makoto blurts out. “I was just wondering…” he runs his hand through his hair. “Does it hurt?”

“Does what hurt?”

“Walking?”

He has never even considered the possibility that humans found walking painful. “No. Should it?”

“I dunno, Haru,” Rin pipes in from ahead. His voice is strained as Ran almost sits on his head. “The sand is hot as hell.”

“That’s true. But actually walking doesn’t hurt.” He looks back up at Makoto. “Does it hurt you?”

“No!” Makoto says a little too loudly. “No, of course not. I was just wondering because of the, uh, story.”

A quirk of his brow. “Story?”

“The Little Mermaid!” Ren intervenes, hopping off Rin and running back towards his brother. “Have you heard of that story?”

Haru’s knowledge of human literature is limited—he’s only read a few books, but given the chance he doesn’t think he’d even want to read this _Little Mermaid_ story. It’s probably all wrong. “I’ve not. What does it say?”

“Well,” Ran pipes up, raising her voice to be heard. “It says that when a mermaid wants to be human, they have to give up their voice, _aaaaaand_ when they walk it feels like they’re walking on broken glass.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Rin snorts, and Haru nods his head in agreement. Humans are ridiculous. “How’d they get _that_ information?”

Makoto laughs. “It’s just a story, I guess. Not very many people have seen mermaids before.”

“But you have.”

Makoto whips his head to side and stares at Haru, eyes wide and shining. “Huh?”

Haru points to Ren and Ran. “They said you’ve seen a mermaid before today.”

“O-oh,” As quickly as he looked over he looks away, eyes scanning the coast. With the wind whipping about, the waves are particularly loud, and he says something that Haru can’t catch, even with his sensitive hearing. “Yeah, I thought so. I wasn’t ever sure though. My mind was a bit…” He swallows. “…hazy at the time.”

“You probably did,” Haru assures him. “Humans are always trying to deny things they can’t explain. Doesn’t make them any less true.”

He relaxes, giving Haru another one of those pretty smiles.

As they pack up the beach blankets, Haru feels Makoto’s eyes on him again, only this time he can sense the creased brow and the slight frown tugging on his lips. This time, he waits for him to say what he wants. “Um, Haru?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you wearing a dress?”

Ran answers this one. “It’s all we had, Makoto. They needed _something.”_

Makoto laughs sheepishly. “Right, right. Well, don’t worry, I can lend you something different when we get back to my place.”

Haru frowns. “Different? Why?”

“Because,” Makoto’s eyes slide over to Rin, who just rolls his eyes and shakes his head helplessly. “Because men don’t typically wear dresses?”

This is nonsense. Why can’t men wear dresses? They’re super cool and all fluttery. _And_ this one has sailboats on it. “But I like this. I was going to buy more.”

“Haru,” Rin sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You wanted to come along, and that means fitting in. If human men don’t wear that, let Makoto pick something else for you.”

That’s true. Haru doesn’t want to stick out _too_ much. His behavior is probably going to be off for a bit, and there is no need to add appearance differences to the equation as well. “Okay.”

Makoto gives him a sad smile before he closes the umbrella and stuff it in a (plastic, ugh) bag. “Well, If you really like it, I’m sure we can buy one for you,” he finally says. “You won’t stick out if it fits you properly.” He stabs the sand with the blunt end of the umbrella and leans into it a bit, stroking his chin in thought. “I bet Nagisa or Rei will have some ideas. Those two are pretty fashionable.”

Haru beams and throws Rin a smug look which goes unnoticed. “Who’s Nagisa and Rei?”

“Oh!” Makoto chirps while handing off a towel for Ren to fold. He heaves their beach bag on one shoulder and nods towards the houses off the shore. They start walking. “They’re my best friends.”

“You can’t tell them about us,” Rin hisses. “The fewer people that know, the better.”

“Oh,” Makoto repeats, only this time it’s sullen. Haru thinks sad looks particularly bad on him. “Well, okay. Of course, whatever you want. I won’t tell them. But you can still meet them, right?”

Haru nods. “Yes. I would like to meet more humans.”

“Great!” and the smile is back, making Haru’s heart go all aflutter. “Oh, do you guys have a place to stay?”

Rin and Haru had gone through enough arguments to last them the next 700 moons concerning their living arrangements. Humans pick one spot and sleep there everyday, while merfolk are nomadic creatures. Plus, it is “expensive” to be a human. They have to pay fees to stay in their houses and use water and have light. It’s one of the more ridiculous parts of being a human. Haru has suggested they just sleep on the beach or something, but Rin said that wouldn’t work. All in all, they decided they’d just….sort it out when they got their legs.

Which in hindsight was a terrible, terrible idea.

But then Haru remembers what Gou told him about Rin’s teeth. He takes the seaweed pouch and pulls out four discarded pearl teeth and holds him in his palm for Makoto to see. “We don’t have money, but we have these. Do you think that’s enough to live on land?”

Makoto makes this gasping strangled noise, looking at Haru like he’s…well, like he’s grown a tail or something. “Are those _pearls?”_

“Technically, they’re his teeth,” Haru says, reaching over to lightly kick at the back of Rin’s legs. “But they are pearls, yes. Gou said you find them valuable for…aesthetic purposes?”

“I…uh, well, _yes,”_ Makoto finally says after a round of stuttering that his siblings tease him about.

Rin groans, rolling his tongue around before he spits out another tooth and hands it over to Haru to put in the bag. “Here. And look it’s _white_ this time.”

“This enough?” Hauu repeats, still holding Makoto’s gaze. “If we need more, I can yank them out.”

“Stay away from my mouth, moron.”

Makoto blinks rapidly a few times but eventually nods his head. “That’s enough, yes. You’ll be fine.”

“So this can buy me another dress?”

Now, he laughs. “It will buy you plenty of dresses, Haru-chan.”

He doesn’t know what the “chan” means, but he lets it slide because Makoto sounds so kind and gentle and _nice_ he thinks even the word “moron” would sound like a compliment if he said it.

They walk from the sand to the pavement, which Haru finds is even _hotter_ on his bare feet. Makoto assures they aren’t too far from his house as they weave through the roads and climb a reasonable amount of stairs. Reasonable for humans, at least.

Once they near, Ren and Ran break ahead and go to the door. “You follow them,” and Makoto nods up one last steep staircase where a little house sits alone at the top. “I need to go do something first.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Rin groans, picking up his feet and almost skipping to follow Ran and Ren inside. Haru lingers despite his hot feet, following Makoto’s line of sight up the house. “What’s up there?” he asks.

“Hmm?” Makoto slings the bag from one shoulder to the other. “Oh, this is Nanase-sensei’s house. I help her out with a few things, like watering her garden and feeding her kitty. Stuff like that.”

That sentence is a curious one; he’s never seen a human garden nor has he heard the word _kitty._ But he’s here and he wants to learn and get to know this environment as quickly as possible. “May I come with you?”

Makoto cocks his head to the side and then that pretty smile comes back, stretching slowly across his cheeks. “Sure. She doesn’t get very many visitors, I’m sure she’d like to meet you.”

The steps up to Nanase-sensei’s house are _brutal,_ more so than any of the other ones they had just climbed from the beach. Haru starts to pay mind to that little broken glass fable—he’s growing quite tired. “I didn’t think I’d be getting this tired for at least another 600 moons,” he groans, taking a break halfway up the staircase. Makoto waits patiently, hands gripping the railing behind him.

“Is this 100 moons too early?” he jokes, and Haru is surprised at the wit.

“I’m not that old,” he gruffs, but he’s smiling a bit. “I still got another 700 to go.”

Makoto shakes his head and laughs lightly, gripping the railing tight and finishing the trek up the stairs. “Come on. And be mindful of Snowball.”

“Snowball?” but his question is answered 2 seconds later when a white cat comes out of the bushes beside the steps and joins them, weaving between Haru’s legs and rubbing it’s face on his skin. “Oh, it’s a cat,” he says more to himself than Makoto. “What did you call it before?”

“Uh, a kitty?”

Haru nods. “That’s a cuter word for it,” he decides, leaning down to scratch the cat behind the ears.

“Go ahead and pick her up. I need to make sure she eats.” Makoto’s posture goes a little rigid. “That is, if you don’t mind! I can do it, if you don’t think—”

“I got her,” Haru says quietly, picking the cat up and cradling it to his chest. “She’s not any heavier than a turtle.”

Makoto looks like he wants to ask something but ends up shaking the bangs out of his face and making it to Nanase-sensei’s door with Haru right behind him, the cat squirming a bit in his arms. “Hello? Sensei?” He jiggles the door handle before opening it. “I’m coming in.”

A voice from somewhere inside floats down the hallway. “Mako? Is that you?”

“Yes, sensei.” He closes the door behind him and takes the cat from Haru’s arm before setting him in the kitchen. “I’ve brought a friend, is that okay?”

The voice grows louder, yet shakier at the same time. Haru hears footsteps accompanied by a clicking noise that turns out to be a cane. Nanase-sensei is a slightly hunched woman with skinny bones, hunched posture, and big round glasses. “Oh,” she smiles. “This is a new friend.”

“Yeah,” Makoto says. “This is Haru. He’s just moved here. He goes to school with me. Haru, this is Nanase-sensei.”

That’s a good excuse, Haru thinks. Everyone will buy that. He gives the woman a polite bow along with his greetings. She waves him off with a chuckle and heads to the kitchen, scooting away another kitty (this one is brown) with her cane. “Nice dress, young man,” and Haru’s smile splits into a grin. He looks over at Makoto who has his hand over his rather pink-colored face, trying to hold back his own smile. “Isn’t that your mother’s, Mako-chan?”

“Yes, ma’am. Haru’s borrowing it.”

She laughs again. “It’s not quite his size now isn’t it?”

Makoto seems to relax. “No, ma’am.”

“I like it,” Haru announces proudly, and this time Nanase-sensei lets out a bellowing laugh.

“Well, if you like it so much, I’ve got some old ones I don’t wear anymore that you can have. They’re up in the closet on the shelf so if you can reach them, they’re yours.”

Haru goes stiff with excitement and looks at Makoto for approval, whose shoulders shake with mirth. “Do what you like, Haru-chan. Sensei, why don’t I go make you some tea and get your dinner ready?”

She’s already teetering down the hall towards her bedroom. “That would be wonderful, thank you Mako-chan. Come along, Haru.”

As it turns out, Nanase-sensei has a lot of dresses—long ones, short ones, poofy ones, slender ones, patterned ones, and solid ones. Haru looks for one with more sailboats or maybe better yet ones with _fish_ but she doesn’t have any. What he does see, however, is a lot of flower prints, and it has him itching to see a garden.

“Sorry I don’t have ones with fish.”

He blinks, looking at her. He wonders if he has voiced his hopes out loud—he can’t recall. But Nanase-sensei is just smiling at him as she hands him what she considers her favorite.

He’s just about to try one on when Makoto pokes his head in the bedroom, Snowball in his arms. “Tea is ready, sensei.”

Haru clutches the dress to his chest as he follows Nanase-sensei out the door. After he sets the cat on the floor, Makoto gently plucks the dress out of his arm and folds it for him, draping it over his arm again once they’re back in the living room.

“Makoto, Haru, would you like to stay for a cup of tea?”

Haru opens his mouth to accept, but Makoto shakes his head. “I’d love to, but we can’t. I’ve got another classmate waiting at my house. A person can only handle Ren and Ran for so long.”

“Well, alright. Next visit, then.” Sensei sighs, pouring herself a cup. When she looks back up she stares directly at Haru. “You come back anytime. If you need something, I’ll be here.”

Makoto answers for the both of them, giving her a slight bow. “Thank you. See you tomorrow.”

Haru remembers to give his thanks for the clothes before he follows Makoto out the door, but not before he almost trips over another one of her cats. “What does she teach?” Haru asks as they go down the stairs.”

“Hmm?”

“You call her sensei. What does she teach?”

“Ah, well, nothing anymore. She used be some scientist.”

Haru misses a step and trips forward; he would have gotten a mouthful of payment had Makoto not reached forward and caught him.

“Whoa, you okay?” he asks. He pats Haru on the shoulder a few times before he links their elbows together and finish going down the steps.

“Don’t like scientists,” Haru grunts. “They…well.” He doesn’t finish and hopes he’ll get the hint.

He does. “She isn’t a scientist anymore. And besides, I’m pretty sure her research was in botany or something. Nothing to do with mermaids,” he grins.

Haru still feels uneasy but he trusts Makoto; he hasn't given his a reason not to so far.

Makoto opens the door to his home and sees Rin has already changed, curtesy of Ren and Ran no doubt. Now he looks strangely…well, human, for the first time. All dressed up in the proper clothes. It’s quite a strange sight.

“Come on,” Makoto tugs him down the hall. “Let’s get you changed before my mom comes home.”

Haru tries to change into the dress Nanase-sensei gave him, but Makoto convinces him to wear some trousers and a button down shirt, at least for the day.

“Just until my mom sees you,” he murmurs, helping Haru with the last of the buttons. His breath is hot on his cheek. “She likes smart-dressed people.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Makoto’s breath comes out in one final hot huff on his check before he gives him a gentle smile. “Let’s see if the twins have pulled out the rest of Rin’s teeth yet.”

When they walk into the living room, Ren is Rin’s lap while Ran’s braiding his hair into little braids as best she can. Rin looks up and frowns. “Why are you more color-coordinated than me?”

Haru looks down. Navy pants and a lighter blue shirt. Blue. It’s all one color. He looks like the ocean in cotton form. Rin, however, has got brown pants and a bright orange shirt. It doesn’t really look all that different. “I don’t see why it matters.”

“Because—”

“Makoto! Ren, Ran! I’m home!”

“Mom!” the twins squeal, running up to greet their mother. Makoto tries to grab the kids by the back of their t-shirts before they leave the room but the effort is futile. Panic flashes in Rin’s eyes and he squirms on his spot on the floor, looking helplessly Haru’s way. Makoto jumps to his feet and follows them.

“Mom! Makoto brought some friends over!” Haru hears them say. So far so good.

“From school!” Makoto finishes. “They’re new students. I thought I’d show them around.”

“Oh?” His mother rounds the corner and steps in the living room and Haru finds the resemblance uncanny. Makoto looks just like his mother. Even their smiles are close, even if hers isn’t quite as bright. “Hello, boys! It’s nice to see Makoto making new friends.”

“I’m Rin,” He greets, his voice pitched a little higher than usual. “This is Haru.”

She waves. “You boys staying for dinner?” She looks up at her son (that’s one thing they don’t have in common. Makoto’s kind of a giant).

“If you don’t mind,” and his mother shakes her head and smiles back at them again. “I was actually hoping they could stay the night?”

“Sure thing,” she nods. “You know where the spare futon is.” She rubs her son’s arm and gives him a kiss on the cheek. “Just remember you’ve got that extra swim practice in the morning, okay?”

Makoto pales for whatever reason, but he tries his best to keep his smile. “Oh, yeah. Don’t worry, I’ll wake up in time.”

“You’d better!” his mother laughs. “You don’t want me letting Nagisa in with a bucket of water again, do you?”

“Moooooooom,” Makoto whines. “You promised you wouldn’t let him do that again!”

“Oh, I’m just teasing,” she cackled, heading back to the kitchen. The twins were hot on her tail, asking about this and that concerning dinner.

“Swim practice?” Rin finally asks. “You’re learning how to swim?”

“No,” Makoto drawls. “No, I’m on a team. We race other teams to see who’s the fastest so we gotta practice.”

Haru settles on the floor beside Rin and checks out his braids. It’s not too shabby a job. Gou would probably be impressed. “We can help, if you like.”

“Huh?”

“Swimming. Haru and I are pretty good, last I checked.” That earned Rin a sharp pinch to his thigh.

“Really?” Makoto brightens, sitting up straight. “You don’t mind?”

“It’s no trouble,” Haru assures. “It’s not like we’ve got places to be.”

“Well, thanks! I know the rest of the team will really appreciate it.”

 From the kitchen, Ren and Ran’s voices amplify, and Haru is able to catch the tail end of their conversation. _“…and Rin only looks scary ‘cause of his teeth. But don’t worry, he just got in a boating accident. That’s what Haru said.”_

Haru can’t help his laugh, even when Rin reaches over and tries to push his face into the carpet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for your lovely comments! I have a bad habit of letting my stories get out of hand so I'm really hoping this story won't be too long, but we'll see. I've got a horrific flu right now and I've been writing fanfic to take my mind off things, so my editing is the best my high fevered mind can handle at the moment. I hope it's all good and right.


	3. times

Haru can tell Makoto is more nervous than a fish caught in a hook concerning their appearances at his little _swim practice._ Why? Haru doesn’t really understand. He and Rin are _very_ good around water. And as he told him earlier over breakfast, _no,_ they aren’t going to sprout gills and tail as soon as they touch water, so they don’t have to worry about having their covers blown. Honestly, where do humans even get such ridiculous ideas?

“They’re all an interesting bunch,” Makoto laughs nervously as the three of them walk to his school where he says the pool is.  “Nagisa’s got a lot of energy, Rei’s got a lot of focus. Nitori, he’s a bit shy, Momo he’s _not_ and Sousuke’s well….” He never does get around to describing Sousuke. Haru doesn’t like that he never gets around to describing Sousuke.

“Relax,” Rin lets out a yawn before giving a sharp-toothed grin. “We’ll be fine! Your mom didn’t suspect anything did she?”

Makoto nods, seemingly mumbling to himself as they approach the gates to the school.

A few more gates and a staircase later and Haru comes across one of the bluest pools of water he has ever seen—and he has seen some pretty blue waters. Okay, he isn’t stupid, he knows that the water is chemically treated (he can _smell_ it 500 feet away) but he has to admit that it is quite pretty. In fact, it looks rather inviting. He wonders if when Makoto’s practice is all done if he’d let him stay a bit longer to swim in it and try it for himself.

By the pool are the rest of Makoto’s teammates, so Haru assumes. One of the smaller ones catches sight of them and jumps up and down, waving his hands all around as he runs across the side of the pool; he ignores the warnings from another person in glasses about running and pool safety.

“Mako-chan! You’re laaaaaate!”

“Sorry, Nagisa,” Makoto apologizes as he sets his bag by a bench off to the side. “I ran into some transfer students that said they wanted to see watch swim practice.” He gives a smile and says, “This is Rin and Haru,” nodding to them respectively.

Nagisa’s eyes go wide. “New recruits!? That’s great, Mako-chan!”

Haru isn’t aware he’s going to be swimming. “Do you want us on our team?”

Makoto lets out another nervous laugh.  “Let’s take this one day at a time, okay?” and Haru accepts that answer for now. “Hey, guys,” he whistles to the rest of the boys. “Come over here for just a moment, please?”

The rest of Makoto’s team wanders over and Haru can tell who everyone is before he they even give their names: He spots the shy one (Nirotri), the energetic one (Momo), the focused uptight looking guy with the glasses (Rei) and then _Sousuke_ who is just as tall and broad as Makoto, but far scarier looker. Rin will probably say they look like twins.

“Sousuke used to swim on the team, but now he’s our coach,” which apparently explains his lack of human swimwear and the clipboard in his hands. “He helps with training.”

What Haru doesn’t understand was why someone would _stop_ swimming. Granted, he’s given up his life living in the ocean, but he still plans on _swimming._ “Why’d you stop swimming?”

Makoto visibly winces while Sousuke looks to grow half in inch taller in anger alone. “None of your concern,” he says a bit darkly before he turns to Makoto and asks, “Why are they here?”

“I told you, they wanted to watch.”

“If you don’t mind,” Rin chimes in. Huh. Rin covering the manners basics, who would have thought.

Sousuke gives them another cold look over just as Haru is wondering how someone as nice as Makoto can associate with such a human. He grunts out a curt, “Fine,” before he picks up the whistle around his neck and blows, following with a commanding cry of, “Everyone, up on the blocks, let’s get started.”

It appears his friends are too engrossed in a very animated tale curtesy of Nagisa, who’s got his hands springing about wildly. Something about eating until he puked or the likes. Makoto shakes his head, mumbles something underneath the slight smile he can’t help. “Guys, come on now,” he shouts, slipping his t-shirt and pants off to reveal the swimsuit underneath.

Still, they don’t listen; or rather they might not be able to hear. In that case, Haru thinks he can help. Before Rin can slap a hand over his mouth to stop him, he puckers his lips and blows out a sharp cry, louder than anything Sousuke’s whistle can sound. It does just the trick, and four surprised heads snap his way, eyes wide with amazement.

“Whoaaaaa,” Momo’s got stars in his eyes. “That sounded _just_ like a dolphin.”

Well, Haru sure hopes so. It is a dolphin call after all. But he brushes off their questions and gives Makoto a pointed look (he too, looks amazed, with an extra mix of nervousness). “Right,” Makoto clears his throat. “Blocks. Now.”

“Do _not_ do that again,” Rin hisses through his teeth as he drags Haru by his sleeve to the bench along one side of the pool. His hand is rough as he pushes him down, joining him with a heavy plop that has the metal rattling. “Now they think you’re a freak.”

He shrugs, indifferent. Haru is already considered a bit odd among the merfolk to begin with so he doesn’t suspect it will be any different with the humans. “Makoto needed their attention.”

“That’s what that guy’s whistle was for.”

“The whistle didn’t work.”

“Just,” Rin sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Don’t. Okay?”

Easy enough. “Okay.”

He and Rin manage to be quiet for a few minutes as they watch Makoto’s swim practice begin. Haru can admit that their forms are quite impeccable—especially their dives. He’s only seen a few humans dive into the water (off boats and cliffs, screaming and yelling like idiots) and it’s nothing as graceful as this.

But what confuses Haru is that they aren’t swimming the same way. They rotate their arms differently, kick their legs strangely—hell, even Makoto is swimming on his back. Which is fine and all, Haru doesn’t think there’s really a _wrong_ way to swim, at least not how they are, but none of them are using the proper technique that’s the _fastest_. And being fastest is supposed to be the point of this whole thing.

“Why are they swimming like that?” Haru finally asks, leaning his head a bit into Rin.

It seems Rin has been thinking the same thing. “I don’t know,” he whispers back. “They could go faster if they all did it the way he is,” he explains, pointing to the small one Haru remembers as Momo. It’s true, he’s the only one swimming like that, in a way that Sousuke calls “freestyle”

“Should we tell them?”

“No,” Rin shakes his head. “I’m sure they know—he’s collecting the times,” he nods to Sousuke. “They probably like to see who can swim fastest in each technique, I guess?”

“Why?”

“Spectacle? I don’t know. It is a sport, after all. We can ask Makoto later.”

Fair enough. At the end of the day, they’re still swimming so Haru doesn’t let it bother him too much.

After sometime of them taking turns using the lanes (that’s what they’re called) up and down the pool, Sousuke announces that it’s time that they do a  practice relay, which sure gets Nagisa excited.

“RELAY!?” Nagisa screams. “We’re going to do a relay this season!?”

Makoto nods and turns to Sousuke, and the two share a smile, much to Haru’s surprise. “Yup. We wouldn’t be much of an Iwatobi swim team if we didn’t, now would we?” he confirms, taking the clipboard from Sousuke’s hands.  “We’re going to change some things since we don’t have Sousuke anymore so I’m thinking we’ll have Rei on butterfly and Nagisa on breast like last year, and I want Momo to take Sousuke’s freestyle spot. I’ll still do backstroke, sound good?”

Makoto’s teammates look at him like he’s grown a second head.

“With all due respect, captain,” Nitori begins, wringing his swim cap in his hands. “I think that Momo should do backstroke and _you_ should do freestyle.”

“He’s right,” Rei agrees with the push of his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Momo’s times are much faster on backstroke, and you’re the best fit for freestyle out of all of us. It would be in the best interest of the team to put it that way.”

Makoto hasn’t looked up from his clipboard. He’s got his bottom lip between his teeth as he begins tapping incessantly on the board with the blunt end of the pen. “As it stands, I’m still much faster in backstroke than Momo. I think the way I have it is fine.” He looks up—there’s a strange glint in his eye. “We’ll try it out like this for our first meet but if it doesn’t work, we’ll make adjustments before we go into the competitions feeding into regionals. Sound good?”

“You mean adjustments concerning the new members?”

All eyes fall on Rin and Haru as Momo points to them across the way. “Hey!” Nagisa cries, “Are you guys joining the swim team or not?”

It doesn’t look fun. Swimming is something that has always relaxed Haru and this…their swimming looks like a lot of work. It’s pleasing to look at but the mechanical aspect of it all has Haru cringing. The thought of having to swim in the same little pool up and down over and over again just to train, it doesn’t seem worth it.

“We’re just here to watch,” Haru explains, and Nagisa visibly deflates. “Maybe offer some advice.”

That apparently is the wrong thing to say; Sousuke snorts loudly, eyes rolling in his head. “What makes you think we need _your_ advice? It sounds like you two can’t even swim.”

 _That_ was definitely the wrong thing to say—at least to Rin. Insulting his swimming is like a human going face to face with a Great White. Almost quite literally. He bristles and bares his teeth, and Haru can almost feel the electricity hopping off his skin. “Oi!” He snaps. “We can swim just fine.”

“Yeah?" Sousuke taunts. "Prove it.”

“Rin,” Haru warns lamely, “You said to lay low.”

“Well, that was before this guy decided we can’t swim. I gotta prove him wrong.”

“Not a good idea.”

“You’ve acted on plenty of your own bad ideas. Now it’s my turn."

“You don’t have a swimsuit.”

“He can borrow one of mine!” Rei exclaims. It seems Haru and Rin aren’t as quiet as they think they are. “Nagisa has a spare as well, right?”

“You betcha!”

Rin gives Haru a  pleading look. The same sad, pathetic look he gives whenever he wants him to have a stupid race. “No,” and Haru _almost_ whines. “I hate racing you.”

“Because I always win?” The smugness is almost palpable.

“Because you make a big deal out of it when you lose.”

“I hardly ever lose.”

“That’s not—whatever, I’m not racing you.”

Sousuke blows his whistle from across the pool. “Hey,” and he points to the building adjacent to the pool. “You either go change so you can race or you leave.”

Makoto groans, rubbing his hands over his face. “Sousuke, come on…”

Sousuke sighs, throwing one hand up in the air. “What? You brought them here for a reason. I suspect it’s because they can swim. Right?”

He looks torn, eyes darting between Sousuke and Haru. “Yes, but—”

“Then what’s the problem, Makoto?”

Makoto slouches, looking defeated. “There isn’t one.” He hesitates, then, “Haru? Rin? Do you mind?”

Swimming? Haru never minds. And even though it’s a dumb race with Rin, it _has_ felt weird going so long without being in any water. He won’t put up a fuss, not today. “Sure,” and he’s already being tugged to his feet and dragged by Rin to go change.

Rin is much faster at changing than Haru, already waiting by those starting blocks when he comes out. He’s wearing a swimsuit much like Makoto’s, wrapping all down his legs while Haru’s is much shorter like Nagisa’s. He wonders why there are so many different kinds of suits.

“What stroke are you two doing,” Sousuke mumbles as Haru stand on the block next to Rin. Makoto hands them each a pair of goggles and up close, he finally sees _that’s_ where the circles around Makoto’s eyes come from.

“Freestyle…?” they both say. It’s not like they know how to do any of that other stuff. Obviously.

Sousuke looks up from his clipboard and stopwatch. “O _kay,_ then. _”_ he drawls uncertainly before he shakes the whole notion off. “On my mark,” he explains, holding up his whistle.

They’re not as quick off the blocks as the others are but once he and Rin are in the water, everything is right in the world. Having legs has been an interesting experience but there’s nothing quite like swimming. It’s different with human feet—slower—but hey, still pretty fast. Much faster than he anticipated.

Haru’s thankful he paid attention to how they team turns on the wall and copies the same technique, pushing off the wall at the same time as Rin. Always neck and neck, they are.  They each win just as often as they lose. Haru thinks that’s evidence enough that they swim exactly the same, but apparently it’s not. Rin’s determined to be better. Whatever. Haru thinks he just does this phony rivalry because he’s so damned bored.

When they slap the wall, and yank the goggles off, panting and slightly out of breath with the newness of it all, Haru knows exactly the outcome. “Tie.”

“aGH!” Rin screams, splashing at the water. “Again? We tie, like, half the time.”

“What have I been trying to tell you?”

“I don’t care okay, I still think…that…uh. Guys?”  Rin trails off, and Haru looks up to find they are met with the entire swim team staring with their jaws slack save for Makoto, who’s hiding his face in one of his hands.

They stay in the pool, not sure what to do. “Um,” Rin laughs. “How’d we do?”

Sousuke looks at them. Then at the stopwatch. Then back at them. Then back at the stopwatch. He shakes it. Squints at it. Shakes it again. Walks over to Rei and rips his glasses off to put on his own face.

“46.23 seconds.”

Haru and Rin shrug, sparing each other wary looks. “Uh, okay?”

Sousuke, complete with Rei’s glasses still on his face, stomps over to edge of the pool and thrusts the stopwatch in Haru’s face. “46.23 _fucking_ seconds.”

Yeah, he’s totally not getting it. He looks up at Makoto for some sort of hint, but he’s still got his face in his hands, only now he’s sitting on the ground. “Is that not good?” Haru finally asks because that _has_ to be it. He definitely felt slower than usual—it probably didn’t match up to their team times. “I wouldn’t know. We’ve never been on a team or recorded our times before.”

At this point, Sousuke’s all red in the face. “The world record. The _world_ record for 100 meters freestyle is _46.91_.”

Oops.

So much for laying low.

Rin starts laughing. This ugly, teetering high pitched of a thing that goes great with the embarrassing flush of his face. “Um….beginners luck?”

Nice one, Rin.

"How."

Haru can shake this, he's sure of it. "You must have pressed your watch incorrectly."

"How."

"Really, I'm sure it's a mistake," Rin tacks on.

"How."

"It's a fluke. Honestly." and Rin nods in agreement.

"We're good," Rin boasts, and Haru almost elbows him in the fucking face. "But we're not  _that_ good."

"I don't...I can't....It's got to be..." Sousuke stands back up and points to the both of them with new resolve. “Whatever. You’re still on the team. Both of you. Makoto, make the adjustments while I put these two back on the block to make sure my shoulder hasn't fucked my ability to click a stopwatch.”

“No.”

All heads look Haru’s way; even Rin, who looks entirely out of his element and unsure of what to say.

“No, what?” Sousuke asks.

“No, we won’t be on the team. Thank you for your offer, but really: we just wanted to observe.”

“And help!” Rin chimes in. “That is, if you still think we’re qualified to.”

Sousuke just stares at them, brow creased and eyes squinted like he can’t believe they’re real. It’s a feeling Haru is used to, just not while he’s got legs. He kinda thought he’d be done with this once he got legs.

“ _What!?”_ That’s Nagisa, who is the first to hop out of his dumb stupor—and quite literally so. He scampers to the edge of the pool and hangs on to Rin’s hand. “You _have_ to join the team! Look at you two! You swim like you were made for it! It’s like you’re _fish.”_

Well, he’s half right.

“It’s true,” Nitori pipes in, his voice a bit meek. “You’re very talented! You should use that talent.”

Nagisa takes his other arm and tries to hook it under Rin to pull him out of the pool; Rin however, puts up quite the fight. “Look at these arms! I bet he’d do a mean butterfly,” and Sousuke nods his head in approval.

“I don’t know….” Rin trails off, and Haru can hear the confliction in his tone. He’s getting sucked in, and that’s not good.

“Well _I_ know,” and Sousuke marches over to help pull Rin out of the pool, who squawks at the very sensation as he’s set down on the side, feet still dangling in the water. Sousuke takes a knee and picks up Rin’s arm, studying it. “There’s some real potential with a proper regimen. He could blow Michael Phelps out of the water.”

Who the hell is Michael Phelps?

“Michael Phelps is _so_ 2008 get with the program, Sou-chan.”

“I needed an obvious example since these two are clearly too _stupid_ since they won’t even consider competition. They could have a professional career.” He groans, giving Haru a bit of a stink eye. “You’re just like Makoto, you know that?”

“Makoto?” Haru echoes, and he looks over to find that Makoto is sitting off on the edge of the pool away from them all, his feet in the water as well.

“Sousuke…” his name comes out like a bit of a warning, like a bit of a prayer, but Sousuke doesn’t listen.

“Makoto’s good. _Real good._ Better than me. And I was pretty fucking good.”

“Then why’d you quit—”

“Drop it. Anyway, last year at Nationals, Makoto placed second in the 100 meter backstroke and _first_ in the 200 meter backstroke. He got us such a good start on the relay, we were able to place second for that as well.”

Makoto says nothing—he simply kicks his feet in the water with a lazy pace, eyes tracing the ripples in the water.

“But then there was the freestyle individuals,” Nagisa sighs, and Rei, Momo and Nitori suddenly look insanely uncomfortable to match the tone.

Haru keeps his eyes on Makoto, who shrinks at the sheer mention of the individuals. “I don’t get it,” Rin says, voicing his and Haru’s opinion aloud. “What happened?”

Sousuke shrugs and lets his eyes follow Haru’s to look at Makoto. “We don’t know.  He just…stopped. 25 meters out. He wasn’t hurt, he wasn’t sick…I have no idea what happened. And he won’t tell us.” Sousuke finishes that last part loudly, obviously wanting Makoto to hear and pick up on his frustrations.

“We thought…” Nitori stops with a sigh before he picks up again, “We thought he wanted to go the Olympics. He’s so talented, he could definitely make it. We wish he’d tell us what ‘s changed his mind.”

Suddenly, Makoto took a heaving breath and hopped to his feet. “Well, that’s enough of that,” he mumbles, looking down at his feet.  “If they don’t want to be on the team, they don’t have to be on the team.”

“But Mako—”

His voice is gentle but firm as he repeats himself. “If they don’t want to be on the team, then they don’t have to be on the team. We can’t make them.” He finally looks up to meet Haru’s unwavering gaze, but he can’t tell what he’s thinking. “In the meanwhile, they’re willing to offer some advice and maybe we should pay attention to what they have to say. You know, considering what they’ve shown us. Agreed?”

The rest of the team mumbles out their compliances as Makoto walks over to where Haru’s still treading water by the wall. He crouches down and extends his hand, eyes crinkling with his smile. “Need some help there?”

He doesn’t, but he takes Makoto’s hand anyway. “Thanks,” Haru murmurs as he’s heaved out of the pool.

“So,” Sousuke sighs, tossing his clipboard aside. “I guess my recommendations are shit compared to whatever you two do. What’s the big secret?”

Haru hasn’t planned for this. They weren’t supposed to make such a big spectacle of themselves—honestly, he and Rin really just wanted to watch. But now they are a part of this, this…team. A team that wants their help. A team that _needs_ their help, to be quite honest. Someone to show them what swimming is all about.

Haru’s isn’t a mind reader of Rin and vice versa but when they both turn their heads to share a similar expression, he knows that for once, Rin is thinking _exactly_ the same thing.

“The ocean,” they say together.

Makoto’s face goes green.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> olympic bound makoto!!!!! how about that for a change, hmm?


	4. tea

“It’s a bit _antiquated,”_ Sousuke admits with a sigh, looking over the plans Rin had helped him write down. “But you know what they say about antiques.”

“They’re ugly!”

“Dusty.”

“Old?”

“Ooh, ooh! Pawned to get something cooler.”

Sousuke runs a hand over his face. “No,” he drawls. “They’re _valuable.”_

“Ohhh,” his team echoes before Nagisa leans into Haru’s ear and whispers something that could barely pass as a whisper: “Wait, what?”

“What I think Sousuke means is,” Makoto butts in, “That Rin and Haru’s ideas are old fashioned, but they can still help us.”

“Right,” Sousuke snaps his fingers. “A weekend training camp swimming in the ocean from island to island. Simple, yet effective. Swimming in the waves will really build up your endurance so even if you’ll never face the same environment, it’ll build muscle tone and should improve how long you can swim and will make practices back _here_ more effective. Get it?”

Nagise gives a wink and click of his tongue before he once again leans into Haru with the same whisper and says, “Sounds like a _bad_ idea.”

Rei takes his towel and wrings out his hair a few times. “I’m surprised to hear that from you, Nagisa. The opportunity to go on such an adventurous expedition does not seem like something you would reject.”

“Oh, it’s nothing like that, Rei-chan,” Nagisa waves his limp hand about before he inches even closer to Haru, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. It’s a difficult task considering Nagisa is considerably shorter. “You see, Haru-chan.” He pauses, give Haru’s shoulder a good pat. “Can I call you Haru-chan?”

It doesn’t sound as nice as when Makoto says it. So.  “No.”

“You see Haru-chan,” So much for that request. “As the rest of my team is well aware, I do not shy from adventure. I’ve gone skydiving. I’ve gone rock climbing. I’ve gone cliff diving. Off the rocks I climbed. And then when I cliff jumped off the rocks I climbed, I landed in the water and punched a shark. Right in the face.”

“No you didn’t,” Rin deadpans, and Sousuke cracks a little grin.

“So clearly,” Nagisa continues, “I am not worried about me, Indiana Jones in training.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Haru admits, but Nagisa brushes off his confusion.

“What I’m _concerned about_ ,” Nagisa’s voice gets louder and his grip gets tighter, “Is our dearly beloved captain, Mako, who has acted _super weird_ ever since he almost drowned in the ocean and like, you know, _died.”_

“Nagisa!” Nitori cries with admonishment just as Makoto goes a little pink in the cheeks. “Don’t be so crass about that!”

“Nitori is correct!” Rei squawks, “That must have been a very horrific event for Makoto. He had to be taken to the hospital. He grew very ill, you should be more considerate of his trauma.”

At this, Makoto gives a weary laugh and holds his hands up in a gesture of placation. “Trauma’s a bit of a strong word. Don’t get all worked up, it’s fine. I survived, didn’t I?”

Nagisa lets out a low whistle before he jostles Haru closer to him, their shoulders squishing together uncomfortably. “Barely,” Nagisa whispers and really, Haru is beginning to believe this kid does not understand the concept of discretion. “It took us days to get him to go back and stand on the _shore_ I highly doubt you or Rin-chan will be able to get him back in the ocean—”

“Nagisa.” Makoto’s voice cuts through the air with such decisiveness, the world around them goes quiet. “I’ve had plenty of time to recover. I can handle it. I promise.”

Finally, Haru is able to wiggle out of Nagisa’s grip. “I believe him,” he tells his team, but his eyes are on Makoto. “He can do it.”

Makoto gives a timid smile in return.

“Well,” Rin coughs when the silence gets a bit much. “So that’s settled? You guys want us to help you with the weekend training camp?”

“It would be appreciated. Especially if you can get any of us to a 46.23,” Sousuke emphasizes, holding the stopwatch around his neck.

“ _Fluke_.”

“Yeah, not buying it, shark teeth.”

“I—it! It was a…. _boating accident.”_

Haru shrugs off Rin and Sousuke’s budding argument (as well as swallowing a snort of laughter or two), turning his attention back to Makoto. “Don’t worry about the ocean.”

Makoto’s wringing his hands, tapping his toes on the concrete of the pool and nibbling on his bottom lip, which makes the meek little, “I’m not,” all the more unconvincing.

“Me and Rin will be there. Nothing bad will happen to you.”

“I know that.”

“You won’t drown.”

“No, probably not.”

“You _won’t._ I’ll be there to help you if you need it.”

The tension in Makoto’s shoulders finally starts to fade, and this time when he smiles at Haru, it’s more believable. “Okay. Thank you, Haru-chan.”

Yup. Definitely better than when Nagisa says it.

“Yeah, seriously, thanks. This is a good idea, Haru…” Sousuke nods his head, absently rolling his shoulder. Or so he thought. It’s the fifth time he’s seen him do it that morning. “Hey, I never did catch your last names.”

“Our what?” Haru blurts without thinking. Makoto’s entire body tenses.

“Matsuoka,” Rin drawls, and Sousuke tips his head in acknowledgement, leaving Haru with the piercing gaze and the total confusion.

Shit. Haru hasn’t come up with a last name. Maybe he can use Makoto’s. Tachibana. No, that won’t work. That would mean he was part of his family, and all his friends already know that. Can he say Matsuoka as well? Would they believe that? Probably not. When did Rin even come up with that? He needs to come up with his own.  One his friends don’t have. Whose last name can he…

Oh, right.

That’ll work.

“Nanase,” Haru finally says in what probably took _too_ much time to answer. But Sousuke has already thought Haru odd and doesn’t think anything of it.

“Hey, Makoto,” Rei’s tone is questioning, “Isn’t that the name of the nice woman who lives up the steps from your house?”

Never mind.

“You’re right, Rei-chan!” Nagisa squeals. “You’re her grandson, yeah?”

Oh, wait. Un-never mind that. This just might work.

Haru nods and finds Rin looking like he can’t decide if he should stuff his entire fist in his mouth and swallow it or stick his brand new foot so far up Haru’s ass, he tastes toes for breakfast.

Probably the latter.

 

* * *

 

They’re walking home when Makoto’s cool, calm and collected demeanor starts to slip away.

“You said you were sensei’s grandson!” Makoto whines, tugging at his hair. “What will happen when they find out that’s not true?”

Haru shrugs. He doesn’t see the problem. “Do they talk to her often?”

Makoto stops momentarily. “Oh, uh. No?”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“…Everything!”

Rin rolls his eyes. “As stupid as Haru’s little lie is, I can’t see it causing us trouble right now.” He tugs on Makoto’s sleeve. “By the way, who is Nanase-sensei?”

“She’s the one that gave me that other dress, the one with the flowers,” Haru explains proudly, and this information only makes Rin more annoyed. “She used to be a scientist,” he goes on, and Rin pulls a face. “Not anymore, though. But she seems pretty nice to me. She even said to come to her when I need something.”

That’s when it hits him.

Nanase-sensei will help him.

“Haru?” Makoto calls his name down the street but Haru is already running. “Haru, wait up!”

In all honestly, Haru is impressed with how quickly he gets a hang of this whole running thing. And while it’s definitely no swimming, it’s quite exhilarating, and he gets the appeal.

He ends up keeping his lead all the way back to Makoto’s house, losing enough time on the stairs for Makoto to yank him down by the collar of his borrowed shirt. “Haru,” he pants his name out again. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to talk to Nanase-sensei.”

Makoto looks pained. “…why?”

This is the first time Haru hesitates with Makoto. It’s the first time he’s felt inclined to lie. He wants to tell Makoto the truth, but he also knows that if he does, he’ll just try to stop him. As much as he likes Makoto and his twin siblings, Haru knows it’s unrealistic for him and Rin to stay with them for a long period of time—his parents wouldn’t approve. Haru and Rin have to find an adult they can trust.

So, Haru wants to know if he can trust Nanase-sensei.  She’s already given him the dress, and that’s a start.

“I wanted to ask her who Indiana Jones is,” he finally tells him.

Makoto’s face contorts into an expression Haru’s never quite seen before: a mix of freight and exasperation, maybe. “American Film. Harrison Ford. Raiders of the Lost Ark. 1981. Happy?”

“That was just noise.”

He deflates. “Haru,” he says in what Haru has dubbed his _captain_ voice, face falling from its happy façade. “Just tell me—”

“Give me 15 minutes.”

“For what _?”_

“I want to talk to her.”

“About _what?”_

He needs another excuse. “Dresses?”

Rin gives a haggard shout, balling his hands in his hair. “Just let him go, Makoto. He’ll be fine. He’s stupid, but not stupid enough to go and make fish food of himself.” He gives Haru a cold look. “Right?”

Haru waits for Makoto’s permission, teetering on the balls of his feet on the bottom step by his home. Makoto’s hand runs down his face, cupping his mouth as he breathes deeply before he slides his hand through his hair. “Okay. Fine. Tell her I sent you to collect her mail and feed the cats….can you handle that?”

He can. “Yes!” and it’s not only Rin who is surprised by his burst of emotion. What he feels is gratitude—that the human he trusts with merfolk secrets can trust the merfolk to be human. Or something like that. He wants Makoto to know how thankful he is, so he hops off the bottom step and cups his face, leaving a chaste kiss on his cheek. “Gracias, Makoto!”

“No estamos en América del Sur,” Rin hisses underneath his breath. _“Idiota.”_

“Right,” he mumbles, looking back to see Makoto with wide eyes and a bright red face. “Lo siento—I mean, _sorry.”_ He gives Makoto’s cheek one last pat and starts to jog up the stairs when he turns around and promises, “No Spanish. Don’t worry, I’ll remember this time.”

Haru's almost at the top of the steps when he hears Rin whine to Makoto: "We're _screwed_."

 

* * *

 

“Haru! How nice to see you. Come in, come in.”

After he hands her the mail and gives the cats their food, Nanase-sensei invites him to sit in the living room with her to have a cup of tea.

“Now,” and Haru watches as her hand trembles pouring the tea. “What can I help you with today?”

Suddenly, he’s overwhelmed with embarrassment—and that certainly doesn’t happen often. This seems too forward. His hand reaches into his pocket and plays with the single pearl tooth he has snagged from his and Rin’s collection.  Will she even know how much it is worth? Makoto didn’t. “I just had a few questions,” he manages to say and it seems Nanase-sensei doesn’t know the wiser.

“Oh?” she scoots his tea over his way. Haru has enough sense to wait until it’s not so hot. “Well go ahead.”

After much internal deliberation, Haru finally yanks the pearl out of his pocket and puts it on the table between them. “I wanted to ask you about this.”

Her face falls.

Haru watches carefully as Nanase-sensei stares at the pearl on the table. It’s not the same wonderment that the twins had or the shock that Makoto had. She’s mildly surprised, brow creased in confusion and she just….stares.

“Hmm.” Nanase-sensei adjusts the glasses on the bridge of her nose before picking it up, inspecting it with great care. “What a beautiful pearl,” is all she ends up saying before she places it on the table once more. “I haven’t seen many like that before.”

Her wording has him curious. “But you _have_ seen one before?”

She hums, standing slowly out of her seat. Haru waits as she hobbles to her bedroom and back, returning with a small brown box that she sets by Haru’s tea on the table. She nods when his hands hover over the claps and he opens it to find that, indeed, Nanase-sensei has seen a pearl like his because she _has_ one.

This is not just some oddly shaped pearl. This is a merfolk’s tooth.

“I’ve had it for years.”

Haru swallow thickly, plucking it out of the box. She’s tied the tooth on a string, making a necklace of it. “Where did you find this?” Because these are _not_ something humans can easily find.

“I didn’t find it.” She leans in a bit and smiles. “It was given to me.”

Given. There is a huge difference between _given_ and _taken_ and Haru wants to make that known. “Someone _gave_ this to you?”

“I don’t appreciate your implication, young man,” but she sounds anything but angry. Her expression still has traces of amusement. “I’m no thief.

Haru reaches for his cup of tea and blows on it, staring at the nice, pretty flower on the porcelain cup and not at Nanase-sensei’s face because he’s surely just insulted her. A little. Just a little.

“It was some time ago,” Nanase-sensei continues with a nostalgic sigh. “When I got the first one from Kyou, I ended up having to sell it. I knew better when I got this one.”

The teacup is inches from his lips as he freezes, eyes snapping up to meet hers.

“This one,” and she puts the necklace around her neck. “I got from my dear friend Tora.”

Haru makes a beautiful spectacle of himself choking on his first sip of tea.

“He was like a son to me,” she explains, tracing the edges of the tooth with shaky fingers as Haru does his best to wipe the tea off his shirt. “He came here on his own when he was just a young man.” She gestures to the space around her. “I rented him a room, helped him on his feet. He didn’t stay for long and when he left, he gave me that as thanks.” She sighs heavily, sounding tired. “So strange, that boy. No job, no family, no home. He had nothing.”

“Like me,” he blurts out without thinking.

Good one, Haru.

But Nanase-sensei isn’t even phased. She picks up her own cup of tea and takes a sip, successfully swallowing it instead of having it come out her nose like he did. “I suspected so. You seem like the…” she trails off, and Haru isn’t sure she’ll finish. “…traveling type.” She decides on, giving him a smile.

“I guess you can say that,” Haru mumbles. “I’m here with my friend for a while. We need a place to stay so I was hoping,” he nods to the pearl on the table. “If you could tell us how much that is worth so that we can pay for, a, uh, tent.”

“Rent.”

“Right, rent.”

Nanase-sensei chuckles and picks up the pearl with one hand and grabs Haru’s wrist with the other. “Nonsense,” she whispers, placing the pearl in Haru’s palm and curling his fingers around it. “You hold on to this and don’t worry about the rent. You and your friend are welcome to stay here.”

This is pretty much what Haru was hoping for, but it still shocks him. “Really?”

“Yes, really. It would be nice to have two sets of young hands around the house. Cooking, cleaning, things like that if you don’t mind?” he shakes his head; fair trade. “I hate having to ask Makoto to do these things.”

Haru blinks. “Why? He likes you, and he likes helping people.”

She laughs, taking another sip of tea. “Oh, yes, I know. Sweetest boy in town he is. But since he’s too busy taking care of other people I fear he doesn’t always look too well after himself.”

He doesn’t particularly know what that means, but he has a hunch. “Does this have anything to do with him drowning?”

“So blunt,” she laughs under her breath. Haru isn’t sure if he was meant to hear it or not. “A bit, yes,” she admits. “He hasn’t been doing so well since the accident.”

“His friends said the same thing,” Haru recalls. “He’s apparently giving up his chance at the big competitions at the Olympics because of it.”

“That’s sad, yes, but I fear it’s something even worse than that. Competitions are nice and all, but it’s not the most important part of swimming.”

Haru completely agrees.  He’s glad Nanase-sensei totally gets it.

“I talk to his mother,” she continues, “and she says they can barely get him in the water. He swims, but he’s frowning when he does it, shakes when he gets out of the pool. Will barely stick his toes in the ocean tide. He’s so frightened by what he used to love. And no one’s the wiser because he’s just sweet Makoto, always trying to put on a smile and help around the town.”

He thinks back to the promise Makoto made to his team that morning. “He’s going to try again. To swim in the ocean. He and his teammates are going to train out in the ocean in a few days.”

Nanase-sensei blinks. “How’d you manage to get him to agree to that?”

“It’s for his team,” he shrugs, because it seems Makoto does that kind of thing. That’s what captains do. They make sacrifices. He knows that from watching the captains on the boats. “Besides, I promised I’d help him.”

“ _You’ll_ help him, huh?” She throws him a sly look. “What power do you possess, hmm?”

Mayday, mayday.

“…I’m a really good swimmer. He won’t come close to drowning with me around.”

She accepts that answer. “Well,” and she tips her cup of tea his way. “I sure hope so.”

Why was everyone doubting him? He didn’t have to be a merman to be a good swimmer. But aside from that, he had a personal mission. “I will make him love swimming again.”

“I sure hope so,” she repeats and gives him a gentle smile. “Take care of him, Haruka.”

It’s only when he’s down the steps and knocking on Makoto’s door does he question whether he told her his full name or not.

 

* * *

 

“You’re staying at Nanase-sensei’s house?”

Haru nods, trying to peel Ran off his legs while Rin works on freeing himself from Ren. “I’m her grandson, remember?”

Makoto’s mother overhears from the kitchen. “Oh! I had no idea sensei had a grandson!”

Using what must be his sibling touch, Makoto manages to get both Ren and Ran off them and sends them scurrying to the kitchen to help their mother. “You talked to her about this, yes?”

“Yes. I adhered to traditional human mannerisms: she invited me, I did not invite myself,” and Makoto almost looks like he could laugh.

“Okay, that’s good Haru-chan,” he says softly, giving him a smile.

“What I don’t get,” Rin pipes in, his voice a jagged and rough contrast from Makoto’s, “Is why you didn’t bother to tell me about this little plan. Hmm? I’ve never met this lady. And no offense Haru, but your judgment of character is _lacking.”_

“I know. That’s how I became your friend.”

“I really, _really_ hate you.”

Makoto laughs at that one: a loud guffaw that has Haru beaming. “Don’t worry, Rin. I’ve lived next to Nanase-sensei my whole life. She’s pretty introverted, but she’s really nice. You’ll be fine.”

Still, Rin doesn’t look satisfied so Haru brings out the trump card. “She told me a story today.”

“About how she loves to skin fish alive?”

“About a pearl she got from a man named Tora.”

Rin’s entire scowl drops from his face, eyes practically bulging out of his head. “W-what?”

“She got a pearl from a man named Tora,” he repeats as he reaches into his pocket for one of Rin’s teeth. “And it wasn’t a regular pearl.” He lowers his voice so Makoto’s mother won’t overhear. “It was a merfolk’s tooth. She said he gave it to her.”

Rin’s shaking, stuttering over words he can’t say. Makoto tugs on Haru’s sleeve and asks, “Who is Tora?”

“He’s,” Rin swallows thickly, shaking off his jitters. “He’s the reason I’m here.”

Makoto looks on helplessly, clearly not understanding what’s going on. So, Rin elaborates:

“My father was named Tora.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to go ahead and let you know that while I want to keep ~some~ mystery to who Nanase-sensei is, she's not going to turn out to be bad or mean or anything like that. She's a mystery, but she's a good person. I promised the story won't be too sad, so while there will be conflict, nothing so serious or evil, I promise! 
> 
> Thanks again for the comments and kudos you guys have been giving me! I know there hasn't been a lot of Makoto/Haru time, but I'm hoping to get into that real soon. 
> 
> PS: I've also re-edited the previous 3 chapters, caught some mistakes, and changed like, 5 words that would have messed up continuity. Mainly the part where I said Makoto had his drowning accident a few /years/ ago (He was originally supposed to be like, 21, but I changed it to 17 and forgot to fix that sentence) so now it's months. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I will address them! Thank you!

**Author's Note:**

> okay so no makoto YET but he'll be there do Not Fear. I had a lot of fun coming up with my own mermaid mythology and I hope I'll get to put more in there throughout the story. if you like it, let me know!


End file.
